Brick’s Blog

    An old adage in the legal profession is “He who represents himself has a fool for a client.” A couple of weeks ago I got a copy of anonymous letter addressed to one of the senior appraisers in Henrico County. The gist of this poorly written letter was certain features (i.e., number of bedrooms, baths and finished square footage) for a property I had just listed conflicted with the public information available through Zillow. Zgads, zstop zthe zpresses.

     Yesterday, while discarding some recent correspondence, I came across this letter again. Uncertain as to what the point of the letter was, I decided to call the senior appraiser at Henrico County and discuss it with him. Turns out that every few months, the appraiser receives one of these anonymous letter whenever anything is listed in this one subdivision where the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) information conflicts with public information. This genius author and real estate guru is always arguing that tax assessments in this subdivision are too high and public records need to reflect what is truly in the property. 

     There is only one problem with his reasoning. As in the instance of the property I had listed, the property had an additional bedroom, an additional full bath, and additional square footage from what public records showed. Items like this would only increase the tax assessment. 

     Whenever we have a slower real estate market, I cannot tell you how many calls I receive from people questioning their real estate tax assessments and whether they should appeal. My typical advice is never let the tax man in the door. I will guarantee you he will find items increasing your assessment.

     So if you live in the Colonies at Wilde Lake in western Henrico County, you might want to find out who this genius is. I can assure you this person is always railing about the real estate tax assessments to anyone who will listen. You need to tell this real estate “expert” to cool it. If Henrico County starts believing their records are so wrong for a community, particularly an affluent neighborhood, the county may well request physical inspections of the properties. Ka’ching ka’ching you lose.  

     Your faithful Richmond VA real estate reporter and bon vivant of all things Southern is now affiliated with Coldwell Banker - Vaughan & Company. Can you believe it? After 24 + years in this business, this is my first affiliation with a national franchise. More to come as I adapt to my new environment, but I am very excited about my new opportunities.  

     All golfers have benchmarks in their playing careers. For a junior golfer, it’s the day they get their bag tag. Just like becoming old enough to vote, legally have your first alcohol drink, or drive an automobile, a bag tag at a club signifies you are allowed to be on the course on your own. Can’t take a cart, but you may walk the course whenever allowed - usually after 2 p.m.

     My daughter, Lucy Gordon, got hers on Labor Day, September 3, 2007. Typically, junior golfers need to exhibit a cursory knowledge of the rules, course etiquette, and a proficiency to score under a certain number on any 3 consecutive holes (21 seems to be the number for most clubs) before they receive their tag. I cheated. Well, I didn’t cheat, I probably just "sandbagged" our club’s newest assistant pro. When I asked him Monday what the procedure was for a junior golfer to get their tag, he said he wasn’t sure and then quickly made one for Lucy Gordon. And I am not going to worry about it! The pure glee she had when I put it on her bag will be one of my lasting memories.

     Besides for the immediate future, when she plays, she’ll play with me; and she’ll know her etiquette. Monday, she was already replacing and filling her divots. She meticulously raked every trap where she hit an errant ball. Now, if our other club members were as conscientious! 

     Her ability to score well will come. She had some moments yesterday - at least two moon shot putts of 40 feet that dropped. She also holed out in 3 a couple of  times from within 100 yards. Soon I’ll be writing about that first true par, so stay tuned. 

     My daughter is the ultimate prepster. She even has a battered copy of The Official Preppy Handbook. Therefore, it should be no surprise that the J. Crew catalogue comes to my house. Since I am an old prepster myself, I like to thumb through the catalogue whenever it arrives at our home.

     I didn’t know until this morning (thank you, Google & Wikipedia) that J. Crew has only been around since 1983.  My impression had always been that it was a venerable old line New England clothier who specialized in the classic prep look, which was rolled out nationally due to the mail order success of LL Bean. Wrong.

     Please correct me if I am mistaken, but didn’t J. Crew once have a tailored Brooks Brothers like look? For some reason, I have always associated Nantucket red pants and cotton sweaters with J. Crew. There is no question that the predominant material of J. Crew products is still cotton, it’s just cotton that has never met an iron.

    I don’t get it. The J. Crew catalogue is page after page of crumbled rumbled goods. The models look like they’re wearing the dirty clothes found on my son’s bedroom floor. J., I occasionally see items in your catalogue that interest me, but buddy they need to be ironed. 

     Located on a quiet cul de sac and backing to a resource protected area, 1101 Mapleton Court has an incredible private setting. Nestled on an over 1/2 acre lot, this 3 bedroom 2.5 bath Colonial is situated in close proximity to Regency Square, Gayton Crossing Center, and the Tuckahoe YMCA. With a fenced Rear Yard and a wonderful tool shed with work bench and electricity, 1101 Mapleton Court will delight anyone with a green thumb.

     While the gardener pursues his passions, the chef of the house has a wonderful area to create culinary masterpieces. The kitchen has a 5 burner gas range. A side by side stainless steel refrigerator is also included. After enjoying that fantastic meal, what better place to relax than the Family Room with its masonry fireplace and gas logs.

     This all gas home is offered at $259,500. For more information, please take the Visual Tour.

     Remember "it’s the economy, stupid"? This Clinton catchphrase from the ‘92 election may well reverberate in this year’s election, too. Well, I have a new catchphrase to describe the Richmond real estate market and it is "It’s the selectivity, stupid."

     In past posts, you may recall that I mentioned my encouragement to my buyer clients to be very selective in their ultimate choice. Damn the gas prices, full speed ahead. With our glutted market, buyers need not compromise and should definitely find everything on their "want" list and most of their "wish" list in the home choice.

     Over the last few days, I have been working on pricing for a some potential listings I may have. In doing my CMA (Comparable Market Analysis), I was stuck by the "selectivity" shown in my comps. I know this last sentence was filled the Realtorese, so let me translate. "Comps" are comparable properties to the property you are trying to price (i.e., the subject property). "Comps" should have similar features - style, square footage, # of bedrooms, # of baths, location, etc. as the subject property. "Comps" should have sold within the last 6 months. A good CMA should have at least 3 "comps" to compare against the subject property. The analysis part of the CMA is adjusting each "comp" with a plus/minus value against the subject to arrive at a value for the subject property. Needless to say, this is a subjective process, since how do you give an absolute value for a difference such as a fireplace that the subject has and the "comp" doesn’t?  

    Anyway, the first property I was pricing was in an upscale western Chesterfield neighborhood. I had numerous "comps". All built within a few years of each other, all having the same number of bedrooms, baths, and approximate square footage.  This was going to be a breeze. The owner had already indicated to me what he thought the property was worth and my "comps" suggested the owner was dead on. Now, I started my analysis. As I went through my 5 comps, I noticed the first 2 "comps" had 9′ ceilings. Uh oh, so did 3, 4 and 5. My subject property was built with 8′ ceilings. So I looked at the competing market (i.e., what is/was for sale) and found numerous "comparable" competing 8′ ceiling properties had been on the market when these 9′ ceiling properties sold. 

     Next up in my analysis was a townhouse in western Henrico. Again, I had numerous "comps"; and again I knew what the seller was hoping for as a sale price. Another breeze. Not so fast, Brick. All my "comps" were for end units. The subject property was an interior unit. I am sure you can guess the rest.  

     The fact is all buyers in the current market are making sure they are getting their maximum deal. These buyers are making their choices based on the little differences. With inventory levels where they are, buyers have that option. While "price" overcomes all, buyers are willingly to "pay the freight" if they perceive they are getting their maximum bang for their buck,

     Currently, I serve on the Education Committee with the Richmond Association of Realtors (i.e. RAR). I am sure many of the younger members of that committee roll their eyes whenever I begin to wax and wane on the "good old days" of real estate. While I am the first to appreciate and praise all our modern conveniences (ask me about pre cell phone days some time), I do miss how impersonal real estate has become.

     In the good old days, whenever we had an offer for a listing agent, it was necessary to coordinate the delivery of the offer. Most times this meant physically placing the offer in the listing agent’s hands. The same applied to counters; and due to the nature of real estate, many of these exchanges were nocturnal. For some of the oldtimers in the Richmond real estate game, I can remember the exact place I met many of these people for the first time. I might not remember exactly when or who the parties to the contract were, but usually I can remember where the property was located that we were negotiating. 

     Nowadays, an offer can be transmitted via facsimile or e-mailed as a .pdf. With current gas prices, this is not all bad, but it does take away some of the personal nature of the business. These days it is not uncommon for me to be in a committee meeting at the RAR and be seated next to someone I don’t recognize. After we introduce ourselves, I often find it is someone with whom I have done a prior transaction, but just had never met. 

     Real Estate Youngsters, think about occasionally delivering a contract and meeting the other agent. If you insist on conducting business electronically, how about doing so with .pdfs? Your facsimiles are just too blurred for my tired old eyes. 

     About a year ago, I got a complimentary copy to a new magazine called, Garden & Gun. Only in the South would someone think a magazine with such a title would succeed. When I got that complimentary copy, I took the loose subscription card out and carried it around for probably a week meaning to subscribe. I never did.

     Well, over the weekend I got another complimentary issue of Garden & Gun and I am definitely subscribing this time. Published by the Evening Post Publishing Company of Charleston, S.C., this is definitely a magazine for any self respecting Southerner. Some of the articles in May issue include an insider’s guide to Charleston, a guide for a proper pig roast, and an article on various barrier islands throughout the South. One of the watering holes for the insider’s guide to Charleston was S.N.O.B. (Slightly North of Broad), which for any lover of Charleston is clever play upon S.O.B. Don’t know what S.O.B. is? Than you need to visit Charleston and find out.

Here’s a link to Garden & Gun, if you like to learn more and hopefully subscribe.

     With the horrendous decline in the number of sales in the Richmond Area, I thought it might be interesting to see if the decline is uniform across the area or whether certain areas are performing better. Here’s a look at May ‘08 versus May ‘07 and Year to Date ‘08 versus Year to Date ‘07.

    With the exception of a few blips in the market, it appears the suburan areas of Richmond are experiencing a uniform decline. The exceptions would be the East End and the Southeast section of the City.

    And the malaise continues…. Year to date, the number of sales for 2008 in the Metro Richmond Area trails 2007’s number by 34 %. As I have said before, this huge decline in number of sales should not continue through the entire year. Beginning in September of 2007, the final 4 monthly sales figure for sold units in 2007 are comparable to the monthly activity currently occurring. I am projecting that the metro Richmond market will finish 2008 with a decline of approximately 25 % in total homes sold.

     Now that the Democratic Party has a presumptive presidential candidate, I hope we will begin to see a more favorable news cycle. During the Clinton years, 5 % unemployment was referred to by the media as full employment. Therefore, our current 5.5 unemployment should not be portrayed as the end of the world. Currently, mortgage rates are fantastic, selection incredible and with the new FHA loan limit at $528,750, the Richmond market only lacks consumer confidence in order to return to its prior glory. Here are the numbers year to date. Please remember these figures are based on Richmond’s suburban areas and compiled using the Real Estate Zones of 10, 20, 22, 24, 30, 32, 34, 36, 40, 42, 44, 50, 52, 54, 60, 62, 64, and 66.